Emily Norton

PepsiCo will invest £24 million in upgrades at the Lincoln Walkers factory thanks to growing demand for Quavers crisps.

Machinery at the factory on Newark Road, which has been producing Quavers for more than 50 years, will be replaced. Employees and apprentices will also be offered new training opportunities, and the chance to up-skill in using new technology.

The investment will secure the listed building’s future, explained food and beverage giant PepsiCo.

Quavers have continued to grow in popularity over the past year and are now bought by nearly one in three households in the UK.

Capacity at the factory will be increased, enabling the team to produce more Quavers to help satisfy this demand, as well as make space for new production lines.

In addition, new equipment at Lincoln will help remove packaging from the company’s supply chain.

The new equipment will be installed at Lincoln in mid-2022, with initial work now underway.

The move will future-proof the factory and Lincoln jobs. | Photo: PepsiCo

Over £1 million has also been committed to Walkers’ Coventry factory – which produces popular snacks such as Doritos, Wotsits, French Fries, Squares, Sunbites and Cheetos – for additional equipment to maintain production during the work at Lincoln.

Nigel Beilby, Lincoln Site Operations Director, PepsiCo: “We’ve always had a strong heritage in the Midlands, providing jobs to almost 2,000 people in the region across our factories in Lincoln, Leicester and Coventry.

“For decades, our Lincoln factory has brought much-loved Quavers snacks to consumers up and down the country, and with this state-of-the-art technology, we’re confident that the site will continue to serve the nation for many years to come.”

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “It’s brilliant to see PepsiCo doubling-down on its commitment to Lincoln through this significant investment in the city centre factory Walkers has called home for more than half a century.

“This investment will help to deliver on our plan to spread opportunity across the Midlands by future-proofing the jobs of the factory’s outstanding employees by training them to use state of the art equipment, and further bolstering the workforce through their apprenticeship scheme.”

Frustration is growing over an unsolicited alarm call in a Lincoln village, and locals are pleading with the driver of a ‘pop and bang’ exhaust to be considerate.

People living in Harby say the regular sound of a loud vehicle exhaust at around 7.20am is becoming a tiresome nuisance.

One villager, who asked not to be named, contacted The Lincolnite in an exasperated attempt to appeal to their dawn disrupter.

“I have a message for you,” they said. “While you think it’s big and clever to sit at temporary traffic lights in the village with launch control engaged, popping and banging at 7.23am, I can assure you you are the only one who is impressed.

“There are small children and elderly people living in the village and none of them appreciate it.”

The current legal noise limit for cars is 74 decibels. It is illegal to modify a car’s exhaust system to make it noisier than the level at which it passed type approval with.

Local councils have limited powers when it comes to tackling road traffic noise, and it may not constitute a statutory nuisance, so those affected hope that a local news appeal will help them spread the message.

In addition, villagers shared concerns over safety: “This and several other ‘pop and bang map’ [drivers] come flying through the village […] and they are going to cause an accident, not to mention the disturbance.”